Rolling Stones’ first tour as headline act (with Ronettes)

Arguably the most famous rock band in history almost never came to be. Mick Jagger’s and Keith Richards’s families moved apart when they were still children, and only a chance meeting at a Dartford, England train station, and the stack of records in Jagger’s hands that rekindled their friendship and made them decide to form a band. They had not even settled on a name yet when a reporter for Jazz News asked the group’s guitarist Brian Jones what the band is called. Jones reportedly glanced down on the floor to find a Muddy Waters record, with “Rolling Stone Blues” on one of the tracks.

On this day, January 6th, 1964, the Rolling Stones began their second tour around the UK, and their first as the co-headline act, along with the R&B girl band the Ronettes. Coinciding with the tour, the Stones also released their first EP, simply called The Rolling Stones, featuring four songs recorded late the previous year.

The EP went to #1 on the UK charts, but then mysteriously dropped out of public consciousness – not until 2004 did it see a re-release on CD. It appeared on the iTunes music store for the first time in November of 2010.